Sunnyside rapist takes life sentence

DNA evidence from lab backlog at center of trial

Herman Whitfield﻿ was convicted of a 2008 rape in Sunnyside and sentenced to four concurrent life terms. He ﻿will serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole. ﻿He plans to appeal the conviction.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

State District Judge Jan Krocker leaned over from her courtroom perch on Thursday and apologized to a woman who had prepared to tell her story of being brutally raped in the 1990s.

"I'm sorry that justice was delayed, but I'm happy that it was not denied," the judge told the woman.

Krocker had just sentenced Herman Ray Whitfield Jr. to four life sentences after he was convicted Wednesday in a 2008 sexual assault case in the Sunnyside community. The victim in that attack testified during the trial, and on Thursday the first of several women prosecutors said Whitfield also raped were scheduled to testify during the punishment phase. Instead, Whitfield agreed to the sentencing, sparing her from having to take the witness stand.

Testimony was to come from victims of more than a dozen cases that relied heavily on DNA evidence from rape kits that for decades gathered dust on the shelves at the Houston Police Department's property room. Those rape kits were among thousands that were held over the years after HPD management shut down its forensic lab after an audit revealed shoddy work. Most eventually would be tested but by independent labs.

"Local governments around the country have finally figured out that they just have to spend the money on DNA testing," Krocker said. "Our community has corrected that."

Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, who was not in charge of the department when the kits went untested, acknowledged Thursday the failure as well as the agency's response to it.

Had those early rape kits been timely tested, Whitfield, who went to prison for abducting a teen in 1994, might have been caught earlier and likely would not have been paroled in 2006 to rape again.

And because Whitfield was a single rapist in a major city, the perennial question that plagues the chief is simple: how many total victims suffered because of the backlog?

"I don't know the answer to that," McClelland said Thursday. "But I do know this: what would be my response to any sexual assault victim out there? The police department will leave no stone uncovered and work as hard as we can as long as we have some evidence and facts to point to a suspect or person of interest."

DNA links other cases

He noted that backlog is now in the past.

"We had the foresight to see this was the right thing to do," he said. "Even in those cases where the statute of limitations had expired, we still did it because we felt like those victims deserved justice and needed to know one way or another."

In 2013, two independent labs began processing about 10,000 cases, including 6,600 untested sexual assault kits, which were stored in the HPD property room. HPD's crime lab was suspended in 2002 when an independent audit revealed shoddy forensic work, including unqualified personnel, lax protocols and inadequate facilities that included a roof that leaked rainwater onto evidence. About eight years ago, the lab resumed operations. It since has transitioned to being run by a city-appointed board independent of the police department.

The testing of the rape kits linked him to the four other sexual assaults that he admitted to Thursday, including one in which a 12-year-old was raped, all between 1992 and 1994.

However, there were at least 14 cases tied to Whitfield through those previously untested rape kits, prosecutors said. But they would not put a ceiling on that number. Initially officials linked him to a possible total of 21 sexual assaults.

In the sexual assault trial this week, Whitfield was convicted of pulling a 21-year-old woman into the woods as she walked home during the day in June 2008. She said he kept her in a choke hold while pushing the point of a pocketknife into her neck. She told jurors he body-slammed her facedown in the tall grass, raped her after putting on a condom and fled. At some point, he cut himself, and his blood was found on her shorts.

The DNA from that incident was tested in 2014. Whitfield, who at that time was back in prison after violating parole on another assault charge, was identified when the DNA matched the one on file. His DNA also matched three other rape kits that were tested last year.

Jurors said prosecutors did a good job of explaining the technical aspects of the DNA testing.

"It was very clear that this was the person who did this to that lady," said Monty Free, one of the jurors. "It was fairly straightforward."

Free said if he had been in the position of assessing punishment, he would have given Whitfield life in prison.

"With all the evidence that we had, we knew it was someone who is dangerous," he said.

Victims came forward

Prosecutors praised the women who came forward and credited the victim who testified earlier this week in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial.

"She was absolutely one of the most amazing women I've ever met," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Marie Primm, who prosecuted the case with Matthew Peneguy. "She was scared and hesitant but never faltered when it came to getting up there and being the first person to tell her story."

Primm said she expected nine or 10 women to testify against Whitfield during punishment but would not speculate on how many victims there may have been, even with DNA proof.

"I honestly can't give you a number," she said. "A lot of victims did not report the crimes. A lot of them, quite frankly, did not have the strength to come up here to the courtroom and face him."

She said the life sentence was a good day for Sunnyside.

"Many women in that area are forced to walk and ride the bus to get to work, to get to school, to get to where they need to go," she said. "And now they know they don't have to look out for Herman Whitfield anymore."

As part of the plea reached Thursday, Whitfield agreed to four life sentences, to be served concurrently. The plea means the 44-year-old will have to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

During those years he plans to appeal his conviction. Although his lawyers would not give an opinion because they did not want to interfere with his appeals, Whitfield may have hung his hopes on a reputation of years of sloppy work by HPD's crime lab.

'I'm just so sorry'

If his lawyers had been able to convince the jury not to trust the long-troubled lab, there may have been a chance they would not believe the tests that showed his DNA was found on the shorts of a victim in 2008.

"You know all the problems that we've had with the HPD crime lab," said attorney Joe Vinas, who defended Whitfield with Spence Graham. "We had to make sure that everything was done correctly and properly."

Indeed, the massive backlog of rape kits seemed to be on the judge's mind when she offered her apologies to the woman.

"The community is grieving that this happened," Krocker told the woman. "I'm just so sorry that this happened to you."

Houston Chronicle reporter St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this article.